Cincinnati's efforts to attract Amazon’s second headquarters could be derailed by an image problem, one site-selection expert says.

Cincinnati has assets that would place the city in the running for such a huge development prize, including the relatively low cost of real estate upon which to build a giant $5 billion-plus campus that would bring more than 50,000 jobs to the area, as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos outlined Thursday.

And Mayor John Cranley told CNBC Friday that the city "will be very aggressive on tax incentives to land this incredible opportunity.''

But cost is likely to be a secondary consideration in the company’s ultimate decision on where to locate its HQ2, according to Brian Corde, founding partner of Atlas Insight – a New Jersey-based site-selection firm.

Talent acquisition has become paramount for all companies as the economy approaches full employment, and skilled-workers are harder to find, Corde said. Amazon's top priority will be finding a location that appeals to the young, highly skilled tech workers needed to execute the company’s vision for the future, he said.

“The question is: "Does Cincinnati have the ability to stand on its own two feet?,'''' he said. “Can recruiters go into a university overseas or in the heart of Boston and say, 'Hey, you should consider moving to Cincinnati to work for Amazon.' Does the city have enough of a coolness factor to do that?''

Hip Cincinnati neighborhoods, such as Over-the-Rhine and Oakley, “give the city a little more of an edge’’ that might help attract and retain the nation’s youngest and brightest, Corde said.

But the city just doesn't stack up to larger, trendier cities, such as New York City and Boston, which offer a blinding array of options for recreation, arts and culture. Such metro areas are also far more diverse, he said.

Julie Calvert, a former official with the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), and now head of Source Cincinnati, a media relations initiative affiliated with CVB, begs to disagree.

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"There's a perception that Cincinnati does not have a big reputation for being a place where people want to come and there is not a lot to do. But that's just not true," Calvert said, pointing to a recent New York Times article with the headline "36 Hours in Cincinnati.'' The story highlighted the city's rich cultural offerings and activities.

"There is certainly a lot to do in this region,'' she said.

She said the story was just one of more than 200 national media articles that have been written about the Cincinnati area an up-and-coming region over the past several years: "We're working hard to let the nation know that there is a cool factor in Cincinnati.''

Regardless of your opinion about where Cincinnati ranks on the list of coolest cities in America, another roadblock facing Cincinnati is Amazon's workforce needs, which might simply exceed Greater Cincinnati's capacity to supply, Corde said.

"Size matters for this one,'' he said. "Cincinnati is a little bit smaller in size, in terms of population. I think they will wind up in a fairly large metropolitan area.''

Cranley suggested on the CNBC program that Cincinnati might be more appealing to Amazon than many larger cities because of the lower cost of living here, noting the cost to live in Cincinnati is about half the cost of living on either the East or West coasts.

But Corde was quick to point out that the cost of living has done little to dissuade major corporations from moving their headquarters to the nation's biggest cities.

He pointed to General Electric Co.'s decision to move its corporate headquarters to Boston from Connecticut, and Aetna's decision earlier this year to follow suit and move from Connecticut to New York City -- where the cost of living is among the most expensive in the country.

"These were not cost plays," Corde said. "These were talent plays.''

Still, there may be factors that are critical to Amazon that they are keeping very close to the vest at this point that probably won’t become apparent until the final location is announced, Corde said.

"Site location decisions are often multifaceted and very complex and because of this, there never is a perfect location that scores out on the top of every category under consideration,'' he said. "There are going to be pros and cons to every city on the short list.’’